Hartlepool’s Camerons brews up new management structure

Kevin Clark

Camerons has brewed up a new operations team to cope with its rapid retail expansion.

Since 2013, the firm has expanded its managed pub operation from four venues to 23, with the acquisition of the Head of Steam and Leeds Brewery pub groups, and is looking to add a further six pubs each year to its estate.

Jim Bentley, Retail Managed House Director

As part of the restructure, the brewer has recruited Jim Bentley as Retail Managed House Director and Mick Hill as a property manager.

Jim is an experienced operations professional with more than 20 years’ experience developing successful sales and commercial strategies for the leisure sector and a proven track record of combining retail brand development expertise with innovative customer focus strategies.

Most recently, he has worked within the Brewers Fayre division of Whitbread, having previously held positions with Laurel Pub Company, SFI group and Scottish and Newcastle

Mick joined Camerons from Mitchells & Butlers PL,C where he worked as a Building Development Manager with MABs Ember Inns, O’Neill’s and Sizzling Pubs brands.

As a board we have set out an ambitious strategy to grow both our retail estate and own brand sales.

Chris Soley

He is an experienced property manager with extensive experience in both the pub/bar/restaurant and retail betting sectors.

Matthew Stancliffe who was previously employed as a tenanted estates manager at Camerons now heads up the leased and tenanted operation. Grant Dexter and David Scott will continue their roles as operations managers for the managed group.

Director and general manager Chris Soley said: “We are delighted to welcome both Jim and Mick to the team at Camerons. As a board we have set out an ambitious strategy to grow both our retail estate and own brand sales.

“As part of this it is crucial we have an experienced team in place to achieve this and in Jim and Mick we have bought in two people who can deliver our vision to grow a successful pub estate across the UK”.

“Jim will head up the managed division of pubs for Camerons and will work closely with Mick and the marketing team to continue to develop the pub brands in our group. Jim has worked at various SME and large organisations and really understood what we were looking to achieve as a company so we are delighted he has taken up the position at Camerons”

“In his property manager role at Camerons, Mick will take the property lead in relation to acquisition, disposal, investment, estates management and repairs & maintenance activity across the retail estate. There will be a key focus on identifying sites across the whole of the UK for our Head of Steam and ‘Country Urban’ pub brands”.

“These appointments clearly indicate our intention to grow our retail estate and develop our business even further. We are now currently in the process of developing our own brand sales strategy and are actively recruiting for this side of our business” Chris added.